Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) comprising: an M degree optical cross-connect (OXC) tandem component comprising M wavelength selective switches (WSSs) coupled to M wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) node interfaces, where M is an integer, and is equal to a number of input directions or a number of output directions; a routing stage wavelength selector switch (WSS) comprising a plurality of WSSs connected to the tandem component, wherein the WSSs are unidirectional components; and at least one N by M OXC combiner/distributor coupled to the routing stage WSS, wherein the combiner/distributor is configured to perform add/drop functions, and wherein the combiner/distributor comprises at least one photonic integrated circuit (PIC) where N is a maximum number of add/drop wavelength signals that the ROADM can add or drop; wherein the routing stage comprises a first stage and the combiner/distributor each comprises a second stage and a third stage, wherein the second stage comprises at least one of a plurality of power splitters for distributor and a plurality of power combiners for combiner, wherein the power splitters splits an input to K signals, wherein the power combiner combines K signals into an output, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped.
2. The ROADM of claim 1 , wherein the combiner/distributor comprises a combiner and a distributor, wherein the distributor comprises a splitter stage and a selector stage, and wherein the combiner comprises a combiner stage and a routing selector stage.
3. The ROADM of claim 2 , wherein the splitter stage comprises 1 by K power splitters where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that the ROADM can drop or add.
4. The ROADM of claim 2 , wherein the selector stage comprises K 1 by M PIC route select switches for adding wavelength signals, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added to the ROADM and M is a number of WDM interfaces.
5. The ROADM of claim 2 , wherein the selector stage comprises K M by 1 PIC selector switches for dropping wavelength signals, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be dropped by the ROADM and M is number of WDM interfaces.
6. The ROADM of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of waveguide interconnects, wherein a total number of waveguide interconnects is M by N.
7. The ROADM of claim 1 , wherein each tandem stage output is connected to each of the at least one N by M OXC combiner/distributors.
8. The ROADM of claim 1 , wherein the PIC is a silicon photonic integrated circuit.
9. The ROADM of claim 1 , wherein the combiner/distributor comprises cross talk suppression.
10. The ROADM of claim 1 , wherein M=N/K, for K<<N wherein K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped by each one of the at least one PIC of the ROADM.
11. The ROADM of claim 1 , further comprising at least one stand-by chip protecting the PIC, wherein the stand-by chip comprises at least one K by M second OXC combiner/distributor coupled to the routing stage WSS, where K<=N, wherein the second OXC combiner/distributor is configured to perform add/drop functions when the PIC fails, wherein the second OXC combiner/distributor comprises a second PIC, and wherein K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped by the at least one stand-by chip.
12. A reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) comprising: a tandem stage, wherein the tandem stage comprises an M degree optical cross-connect (OXC) tandem component; a first stage coupled to the tandem stage, wherein the first stage comprises a plurality of wavelength selective switches (WSSs); a second stage coupled to the first stage, wherein the second stage comprises a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and wherein the second stage comprises at least one of a plurality of power splitters and a plurality of power combiners, wherein the power splitters splits an input to K signals, wherein the power combiner combines K signals into an output, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped; and a third stage coupled to the second stage, wherein the third stage comprises the PIC and wherein the third stage comprises a plurality of selector switches.
13. The ROADM of claim 12 , wherein the first stage comprises M WSSs coupled to M wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) node interfaces, where M is an integer.
14. The ROADM of claim 12 , wherein the third stage comprise K M by 1 PIC selector switches for adding wavelength signals, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added to the ROADM and M is a degree of ROADM node.
15. The ROADM of claim 12 , wherein the third stage comprises a by K 1 by M PIC selector switches for dropping wavelength signals, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be dropped by the ROADM and M is the degree of the ROADM.
16. The ROADM of claim 12 , further comprising a plurality of waveguide interconnects, wherein a total number of waveguide interconnects is M by K.
17. The ROADM of claim 12 , further comprising a plurality of second stages and a plurality of third stages.
18. The ROADM of claim 17 , wherein each tandem stage output is connected to each of a plurality of second stage components.
19. The ROADM of claim 12 , wherein the PIC is a silicon PIC.
20. The ROADM of claim 12 , wherein the third stage comprises cross talk suppression.
21. The ROADM of claim 12 , wherein M=N/K, for K<<N, wherein K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped by each one of the at least one PIC of the ROADM.
22. A network component in an optically switched network, comprising: a tandem stage comprising an M degree tandem component, where M is a number of connections to other network components within the optically switched network; and an add/drop stage comprising a plurality of first sub-stages, a plurality of second sub-stages, and a plurality of third sub-stages, wherein corresponding ones of the second sub-stage and the third sub-stage comprise at least a portion of one of a plurality of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chips wherein a number of PIC chips is equal to M, wherein each output or input of the tandem stage is connected to each of the PIC chips, wherein the first stage comprises a plurality of fixed grid or flex grid wavelength selective switches (WSSs), wherein the second stage comprises at least one of a plurality of power splitters and a plurality of power combiners, wherein the power splitters splits an input to K signals, wherein the power combiner combines K signals into an output, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped, and wherein the third stage comprises a plurality of selector switches coupled to the second stage.
23. The network component of claim 22 , wherein at least some of the third stages comprise K M by 1 PIC selector switches for adding wavelength signals, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added to the network component.
24. The network component of claim 22 , wherein at least some of the third stages comprise a by K 1 by M PIC selector switches for dropping wavelength signals, where K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be dropped by the network component.
25. The network component of claim 22 , further comprising a plurality of waveguide interconnects, wherein a total number of waveguide interconnects is M by K.
26. The network component of claim 22 , wherein the tandem component comprises an M degree optical cross-connect (OXC) tandem component comprising M wavelength selective switches (WSSs) coupled to M wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) node interfaces.
27. The network component of claim 22 , wherein the PIC chips are silicon PIC chips.
28. The network component of claim 22 , wherein each stage three comprises cross talk suppression.
29. The network component of claim 22 , wherein M=N/K, for K<<N, wherein K is a maximum number of wavelength signals that can be added or dropped by each one of the PIC chips of the network component.
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December 15, 2015
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